Pull-out mechanism



Jan. 29, 1952 J. LESWZAK ET AL PULL OUT MECHANISM Filed April 21, 1948Qwue/Mom JOHN LESZAK HARRY F. ZIMMERMAN Patented Jan. 29, 1952 PULL-OUTMECHANISM John Leszak, Baltimore, and Harry F. Zimmerman, Towson, Md.,assignors to Bendix Aviatron Corporation, Towson, Md., a corporation ofDelaware Application April 21, 1948, Serial No. 22,474

, 1 This invention relates .to be connected to the door of an article offurni ture to retract and re-insert a drawer, shelf, carriage or similarobject coincident with the opening and closing of the door.

Devices previously developed for this purpose suffer from a number ofdefects growing out of the difficulty of converting the angular movementof a swinging door into the linear translation of an object which insome cases is of considerable size and weight. Such difiiculty isexperienced in providing for the smooth retraction and reinsertion of anautomatic record changer mechanism from a radio phonograph cabinet as acabinet door is opened and closed.

Such difficulties include sticking or binding of the object, widevariation in the amount of force required at different parts of thecycle, the requirement of an excessive amount of force, excessive costand complication of the mechanism and the unsightly appearance of theportions of the mechanism which are Visible when the door is open.

It is an object of this invention to provide a pull-out mechanism whichovercomes the defects mentioned above.

It is another object of the invention to provide a pull-out mechanismwhich is simple and inexpensive of construction.

It is a further object to provide a pull-out mechanism which operates towithdraw and reinsert a heavy object without binding or sticking andwith little variation of the force necessary to actuate it throughoutthe cycle.

It is still another object to provide a pull-out mechanism whichoperates in such a manner that the ratio of door movement to movement ofthe actuated object decreases as the limits of the objects motion areapproached, thus avoiding jerking in starting and stopping the object.

It is a still further object of the invention to provide a pull-outmechanism the major portion of the Working part of which are concealed,at

all times during the cycle of operations.

It is another object of the invention to provide a pull-out mechanismwhich is easily adjustable to accommodate it to various conditions ofoperation and to use in furniture of different dimensions.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent froma consideration of the following specification when taken in conjunctionwith the accompanying drawing, in which:

Fig. 1 is a cross-sectional view of an article of furniture showing intop plan view one embodi- 3 Claims. (01. 312-274) to a mechanism adapted2 ment of the invention, the fully housed; I

Fig. 2 is a view similar to Fig. 1 showing the door open and theactuated object fully'withdrawn; I

Fig. 3 is a cross-sectional View of a fragment; of the mechanism of Fig.1, the section being taken along line 33 of that figure and,

Fig. 4 is a front elevational view of the embodiment of Fig. 1 showing arecord player and its supporting carriage as the actuated object.

Referring now more particularly to the drawing there i shown in Figs. 1,2, and 4 an. article of furniture l0, such as a cabinet, of square crosssectional configuration in which is housed a withdrawable tray orcarriage l l, shown as composed of a cross member l2 and two sidemembers 13 and M. The members I3 and M are mounted to slide on rails l5and I 6. A shelf ll extends across the front of the cabinet, beingsecured to the side walls thereof beneath the rails. A door i8 is hingedalong one side and closes the .front of the cabinet. e

The pull-out mechanism comprises three main elements I9, 20, and 2|which are preferablyflat metal strips or rods. The elements 29 and Marcpivotally joined-at22 to form a two-arm articulated linkaga Theremaining end of,arm 2| .is pivotally attached to the cross member ll!of the carriage as shown at 23. The remaining end of arm 20 is pivotallyattached to the shelf I! at 24. The element I!) has one end pivotallyattached to the inside of the door l8 near the hinged edge thereof, asshown at 25. The remaining end of the element I9 is secured to the arm20 by means of an adjustable joining means 26 which is shown in detailin Fig. 3.

The joining means 26 may take any of many forms known to the art, theone shown here comprising a member 21 of rectangular shape having itsmain portion extending horizontally and pivotally joined to the end ofelement 19. The ends of the main portion terminate in downwardlyextending tabs 28 which are cut out to a c-shape, the cut out portionbeing shaped to loosely accommodate the member 20. A tab 29 extendsdownwardly from the front of the main portion and is provided with a setscrew 30 for securing the joining means to the element 20.

The use of an adjustable joint at 26 is of great advantage to amanufacturer of a line of cabinets or other articles of furniture ofdifferent dimensions and configurations. By shifting this joint alongthe arm 20, the position of the door relaactuated obj ect being 56 tiveto the carriage at each point of the cycle can be varied, thus providingproper clearance between door and carriage for different dimensionalrelationships of the two. The degree of final opening of the door canalso be adjusted by this means. A single mechanism can thus be utilizedon any one of anumber of cabinets of diiiering dimensions.

The manner of operation of the mechanism is clearly shown in Figs. 1 and2. In the former, the carriage is fully housed and in the latter, fullyretracted. Stops may be provided in a manner known to the art to limitthe forward movement of the carriage.

In Fig. 4 there is shown a front view of a phono-' graph cabinet of thetypewherein the record player is withdrawable for access during theplaying of.

The record player is shown in dotted records.

lines.

It will be noted that the pull-out mechanism is substantially completelyremoved from view'dur- 'ing the whole cycle of operations. The mechanismhas. handled heavy objects smoothly and 7 axis of said angular movement,comprising; two, 7 arms hinged to form an articulated linkage joining 'apoint on said object remote from said cle ment and a point'of'fixedlocation adjacent said element, and a link pivotallyjoining said elementand anmterm'ediate'pdintof the one of said arms connected to said fixedpoint, the sum 7 of the lengths'of said arms being greater than themaximum distance between said points and the hinge of said linkage lyingbetween said axis and a line joining said points.

2'. A mechanism for converting the angular movement of a door intorectilinear movement of an object in a plane normal to the axis ofrotation of said door, comprising; a pair of arms, one end of one ofsaid arms being pivotally joined to one end of the other, meanspivotal-1y joining the remaining end of one of said arms to sai'dobjectat a point on the underside and toward the rear thereof, means pivotallyjoining the remaining end of the other of said arms-to a point of fi xedtwo points.

3'. In an article of furniture having a door hinged along one of itsedges and an object normally housed within it and withdrawable there-.from by rectilinear motion in a direction lying in 'a plane normal .tothe axis of rotation of said door, means causing withdrawal of saidobject upon the opening of said door, said means comprising; a pair ofarm joined together at their ends for pivotal movement, means joiningthe remaining end of one of said arms, to said object for pivotalmovement about a point near the'rear thereof, means joining theremaining end of the otherof said arms to said article of furniture forV movement about a point near the front of said object, and an armhaving one end pivotally secured to said-door andits remaining endpivotally secured to a point intermediate the ends-of said other arm ofsaidpair, the sum of the lengths of said arms being greater than themaximum distance between the first two of said pointsand the junction ofsaid pair of arms lying between the axis of rotation of said door and aline joining said first two points.

JOHN LESZAK.

HARRY F. ZIMMERMAN.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,062,263 Sundquist May 20-, 19131,885,404 Bamberg Nov. 1, 1932 1,936,124 Wilson Nov. '21, 1 9332,319,651 Wilkinson May 18, 1943 2,411,221 McGuire Nov. 19, I946

